Jolly Good Time

Want a treat we had this week when we went to the Hampton Estate in Puttenham at the request of Sir Richard Thornton. He has been giving Andy permission to foray on his land, Puttenham Common for the last 15 years and thought it was time he learned a little about fungi....not a bad idea considering he is ninety years old. He had his lovely wife Gay in tow who spent a little time telling me how difficult it was to deal with her name in recent years as it was hard to go up to soemone, put out your hand and say I'M GAY!. His daughter Bridget who must have been the same age as me was now running the esate, lived in the gi-normous house and kept the whole show ticking over. They had been a dairy farm for the best part of fifty years but he profit from milk began to shrink and they then had to sell off the herd and reinvent themselves. They now focus on grass fed beef and hops and are getting back on their feet.

They were all charming and Sir Richard insisted on taking us out to lunch at the local pub. Their company was delightful. We all told Sir Richard what we would like for lunch and he ordered from the bar. By the time he returned, less than two minutes, he had already forgot what he had ordered for his wife!! His short term memory was completely 'shot', bless him.

He has lived in this small area of Surry his whole life and shared the changes he had seem since the time of the blacksmith and the wheelwright. He had a Governess for his early education and then went on to study agriculture at Cambridge. He has moved with the times and pioneered many ideas with the trees and woodland. He and his wife have actaully travelled worldwide to learn new stratgies for farming and conservation. We found him fascinating and utterly humble. He is not ready to give up either and still turns up for wortk at the estate every day by 9am. He has asked us to come back next year but not in September as he is hop farming....got to love that dedication.

The Wheelwright

 

The Hampton Estate